Food

Restaurant and small business owners gathered to vent their frustrations over a lack of help from government officials in the aftermath of Sandy, reported World Journal. The damage from the storm is done, the question now is how to get customers back.

For new arrivals in the United States, first meals are often memorable. What you ate, where you were, who you were with – we want the details. Tell us the story of that first meal for this special project for the Voices of New York web site.

Tag along with New Yorker and Swedish reality show finalist Guy Clark as he visits restaurants, stores and institutions, and interviews cultural figures all related to the Nordic country in a series of videos featured on Nordstjernan.

Feet in 2 Worlds reports on a multimedia project that lets people share recipes from their family’s heritage and on a social media site that works like Facebook for U.S. immigrants, while El Diario/La Prensa offers details on the upcoming Dominican Book Fair.

The New York City Council is considering a new bill that will require restaurants to put up posters about foods in their menus that may cause allergies. But Chinese restaurants owners believe the legislation is not needed and will become a financial burden to them, reports The World Journal.

This mouth-watering video by City Spoonful exploring the Sikh tradition of the “langar meal” caught our eye this morning. City Spoonful’s Arpita Aneja visited the Staten Island Gurudwara, in Concord, to take part in the tradition of a free, communally prepared vegetarian meal following the religious service.

For the ultra-Orthodox Jewish children of Brooklyn, the familiar Mister Softee ice cream truck jingle holds less allure than the tune that booms from the Kosher L’Mehadrin Bazel Ice Cream Truck, inviting them to “make a bracha,” or blessing, and buy an icy treat, reports The Jewish Daily Forward.

The recently opened Filipino chain Jollibee in Jersey City serves more than just American-influenced fast food, it takes patrons back home to the Philippines with ube-flavored milkshakes and banana-made ketchup. But has the United States stepped too far into Filipino food culture?

Feet in 2 Worlds introduces us to immigrant vendors at the Union Square Greenmarket and takes us to Crown Heights, where a “Trinidad Chinese style” restaurant thrives in the local West Indian community.

As the White House urged Congress to withhold $600 million in nutrition assistance to Puerto Rico, officials responded angrily that this is only the latest in a series of President Trump’s attempts to stop the flow of federal aid to the island, El Nuevo Día reports. Political analyst Domingo Emanuelli found the Trump government's actions “barbaric,” and urged Puerto Rican Republicans to reconsider their allegiance. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said: “I shouted against Trump’s abuses from the start while others were chummy with him. Trump is not the plantation owner and we are not his slaves.” Link to original story →

The Indigenous Peoples March being held in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 18, a day ahead of the Women's March, will bring together groups from Puerto Rico to South America and Central America, reports Remezcla, to focus attention on issues from voter suppression to human trafficking to police brutality to what is called an “environmental holocaust” by activists. “I think it’s a collective cry for help because we’re in a time of crisis that we have not seen in a very long time,” says Nathalie Farfan, an Ecuadorean Indigenous woman and event organizer. Link to original story →

After vowing to create a more inclusive school system in North Carolina, the Durham Board of Education introduced a new department of second language services to serve newly-arrived immigrants who don’t speak English as a first language, Qué Pasa Noticias reports. One of the main goals of the initiative will be to coordinate a translation and interpretation system to help families participate in their children’s education. “As our Latinx population keeps growing we keep opening our schools’ doors to those arriving from all over the world,” said Superintendent Pascal Mubenga. Link to original story →

With Sen. Kamala Harris expected to announce her decision on a presidential run, The American Bazaar asks members of the Indian-American community about the potential candidacy of the California native. While some celebrated the possibility of Harris, who is of Jamaican-Indian descent, running amid the current political atmosphere, others say the country is "still not ready for a female president and certainly not a non-white." Link to original story →